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New York to get seatless trains

A nearly seatless subway car debuted on Monday in Boston — months before a similar pilot programme launches in New York — and Beantown straphangers were unfazed.

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NEW YORK: A nearly seatless subway car debuted on Monday in Boston — months before a similar pilot programme launches in New York — and Beantown straphangers were unfazed.

“I haven’t gotten a seat in the last three months, so it makes no difference to me,” Richard Sullivan, commuting on Boston’s Red Line, said. “Besides, people who need seats can always get on a different car.”

“There’s much more space now,” he said, adding that his only complaint is that the high-capacity cars lack a centre pole, forcing passengers to crowd along the sides in order to hold onto overhead railings. Others, like Christy Vette-Santana, said she was concerned about how the lack of seats on some cars would affect disabled and elderly passengers.

Boston’s transit authority stripped all but a couple of seats from two cars on a Red Line train so more people could squeeze inside.

Seat-less subway cars are coming to New York City as well. The seats will be locked in the upright position during rush hour to squeeze in 18 per cent more passengers. “It’s the fastest way to increase capacity on lines that right now are extremely crowded,” NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton said. In addition to rider reaction, NYC Transit will gauge the impact on platform crowding, train schedules, loading times and other issues, Seaton said.

Transit systems across the country saw significant ridership growth after gas prices skyrocketed earlier this year.  So far, NYC Transit’s ridership has not declined even though gas prices have fallen and the region is sinking further into recession.

Several subway lines are maxed out — NYC Transit can’t run more trains per hour because of the constraints of the signal system. Seaton said the pilot program will be launched on one of the lettered subway lines. Dubbed “Big Red,” Boston’s nearly seatless subway cars hold up to 200 people each, a 10% increase, officials there said. The subway train being retrofitted for NYC Transit’s seatless experiment is expected to carry 291 riders, an 18% boost in capacity, NYC Transit has said.

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